Comments on: Insights August 2009

By: Onita Macmaster

Onita Macmaster — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:13:23 +0000

Very good text. I’ve found your blog via Bing and I’m really glad about the information you provide in your posts. Btw your sites layout is really messed up on the Chrome browser. Would be cool if you could fix that. Anyhow keep up the great work!

By: Tom O'Rourke

Tom O'Rourke — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:34:30 +0000

“Only nine percent of US adults say they would pay higher fares to travel service suppliers who demonstrate environmental responsibility”. I think we need to conduct further studies on the nine percent population and understand more about why they would pay higher fares. I think that when we get a clearer understanding, it would stimulate other ideas that would help increase the percentage.

By: Peter Yesawich

Peter Yesawich — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:07:34 +0000

Steve, many thanks for your kind remarks.

In reply to your question, we have been polling travelers’ sentiments on this subject for a couple of years (including prior to the Lehman crisis) and the results have been very consistent: a growing concern for the environment, but a lack of willingness to pay a premium to suppliers who behave in an environmentally responsible manner. It appears that consumers view this as a “cost of doing business” that should be borne by suppliers.

By: HG Parsa

HG Parsa — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:21:23 +0000

Patrick,

I agree with you. We found similar results in our earlier study on Green Practices in Hospitlaity. Only 25% were willing to pay up to 10% but a about 25% were willing to pay up to 5% and nearly 40% refuse to pay anything. Then we compared data to that of Greece and India. Interstingly agood percentage of consumers still think that it is the responsibility of the Govt.

Our next paper on this topic is in review with the Cornell Quarterly. So, I can’t discuss those results until that paper is published.

Greg - it is a stimulating CSR study. Kudo to you and your group.

By: Patrick Tierney

Patrick Tierney — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:11:12 +0000

We found a similar low level (under 10%) of visitors to the CA welcome center in San Francisco who had actually done any of the green practices we listed (similar to yours). It seems like the industry is way ahead of travel consumers in willingness to support, trusts, knows about or is willing to pay for sustainable green travel.

By: Steve Moore

Steve Moore — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:42:09 +0000

More great work and info from ypartnership. As you know DMAI has embarked on a Futures campaign of which Social Responsibility is a major component. My question is how much is the current recession impactng these responses particularly in areas of car-pooling, energy consumption et al.
Thanks Peter.

By: Greg Dunn

Greg Dunn — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:32:10 +0000

Hello H.G.,

Agreed, it is an interesting line of inquiry and as we will be covering this again in our quarterly Travelhorizons work, we can discuss future content.

By: Peter Yesawich

Peter Yesawich — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:14:56 +0000

Thanks. We don’t have extensive work available on this subject, but I would encourage you to visit the Publications section of http://www.ypartnership.com for additional articles that may be of interest.

By: HG Parsa

HG Parsa — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:50:50 +0000

Dear Peter & Greg

this is very intrestign study. I have done few paers on this topic - consumers willingness to pay for Green practices with data from US, Greece and India. So, I enjoyed reading your research on this topic. It is a timely topic.

I like to hear more about your work in this area.